27 December 2016 09:00 am
‘BuildHerUp’ is a campaign launched by Habitat Sri Lanka parallel to International Women’s Day this year, with the aim of raising funds to provide vulnerable women and girls with access to permanent shelter and adequate sanitation facilities.
This online campaign was launched on March 8th and supported by Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s Brand Ambassador, Pooja Umashankar.
Highlighting the need for adequate shelter Pooja Umashankar said “About one in four people across the globe currently live in conditions that harm their health, safety and other opportunities such as education and work. This is heart-breaking - and we have the potential to change it”.
The first beneficiary of the campaign was Fernando (28), a widow and single-mother to a three year old son. Fernando’s story is one that is moving at the same time empowering. After her husband retired from the armed forces in 2011, he subsequently met with a tragic accident and was killed while tending to his livelihood. Fernando who was twenty five and unemployed at the time, became a single-mother with an infant to care for, no income and no permanent place to call home. Mother and child lived in a temporary wooden structure with no security from adverse weather conditions and intruders and little privacy. Through the ‘BuildHerUp’ campaignMrs. Fernando and her young son will receive support to construct a 550 square-foot house with two bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen.
Volunteering to help with construction, Umashankar and her team of youth volunteers spent their Saturday morning working to build Fernando’s home. The volunteers worked to fill the foundation of the house with earth and laid the concrete bricks of the walls. “It’s been a fulfilling experience to contribute our time and money to build a house for someone in need”, says Kavisha Peiris, youth volunteer who had always wanted to find a way to give back to the community and thought this volunteer build was the perfect opportunity to do so. Habitat for Humanity Sri Lanka’s vision is a country where everyone has a decent, safe and secure home to call their own. Permanent, safe and secure housing is key to breaking the cycle of poverty. It also brings about a change in mindset of the homeowners, building hope and acting as the foundation that dreams and ambitions are created on.